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A Very Sad Day


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Well I was out over the weekend ATVing and we stopped before crossing a river, when we crossed and made it up the other side I noticed the GPS was no longer in its handlebar mounting bracket. I somehow worked its way out. I searched for over 2 hours, even walked down the river about a mile to see if I could find it floating but alas I gave up. Needless to say the ATV trip ended right then and there as I was so pissed. From day1 I never really liked that friggin el cheapo mounting bracket. It seemed so flimsy the way it just clips loosely in place as apposed to the secure locking mechanism that the bracket for my sportrak had.

 

Well I lost $550 canadian not including the UltraII SD card.

 

And to make matters worse is the personalized name and address I put in it is pretty useless because who ever finds it wont be able to charge the battery without the custom charging cable and what are the chances of someone finding it and after buying himself a charging cable is going to return it???

 

Oh well live and learn I guess.

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I'm so sorry to hear about that. :o

 

Two weeks ago I turned off my GPSr and put it in a pocket of my pack. I didn't think to attach the lanyard to the pack, I thought that pocket was tight.

 

However, somehow it fell out. Fortunately, when I hiked back to the area a couple of hours later, I found it.

 

I wish your story could have ended like mine. Bummer!!

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You just convinced me that I need to secure the lanyard whenever I put my Explorist in the cradle on my motorcycle.

 

I'd hate for that thing to come off at 60+ mph. Unlike you, I'd probably see it go, but wouldn't have any way to stop it.

 

Jamie

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:o Well seeing how misery loves company. A good buddy of mine lost his high end GPS almost the same exact way. The only diff to the story was instead of a river this was a mud hole. He looked and looked, but could not find it. It came out of the holder on his ATV.
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Well I was out over the weekend ATVing and we stopped before crossing a river, when we crossed and made it up the other side I noticed the GPS was  no longer in its handlebar mounting bracket.

Really sorry about the loss of your GPS. I can empathize with how depressed you must have felt. I lost my 5-year old Magellan MAP-330 last month. After a trip to the Virginia mountains, and even knowing for sure I used it on the way home, it was nowhere to be found. It simply disappeared. Searched the car, house and luggage a dozen times, and became obsessed with finding it, which I never did. I simply have no idea of how and where I lost it.

 

But on the bright side, I figured it's only money, and replaced it with a new Garmin. The color screen and autorouting capabilities far surpass the usefulness of the old unit. So I feel a little better now!

 

Drew

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Yeah, the silver lining of losing an old friend of a GPS is the opportunity to buy something new. When you lose something new, there isn't much upside.

 

Dot-com, just for reference: what holder were you using? Was this the Magellan bike holder? (I"m still impatiently waiting for RAM to make something for the Explorist).

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embra it was the magellan handlebar mount and the GPS just clips in and you can pretty much pull out the gps with no much force.

 

No silver lining in my case, Had I loss my old sportrak I would not have been half as pissed off because I would get something new but the explorist600 is the newest available from magellan. I pretty much have to return to an explorist because I bought the mapping software so I'm probably going to buy across the border in the US because the one at harmony's and the one on ebay are under $310 even with the exchange rate I saving over $150. I just gotta convince the wife that I need it NOW.

Edited by D0T-C0M
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Years ago I lost a GPSr while ATV'ing in the woods with a bunch of friends (it fell out of my pocket). I didn't notice it missing till we got back to camp, and it was too dark to go searching for it that night.

 

I spent the night retracing our trail in my head, "guessing" a few spots that were likely areas to check. The next morning I took off early to search for it, and found it!!! (why did Magellan make the thing BLACK??!? lol)

 

It was lying in mud and still running. *it* knew exaclty where it was :o

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Have you all considered the irony in losing a GPS? :o

Better to loose a GPS, than to loose your mind.

 

I had a Bike mount, but never used it, due to all the reports ive heard on this forum, about the abuse a GPS gets on an ATV, motorbike, or a bicycle. Ive never had any problems with the little Bike computers on the handlebars, but I won't put a heavyer GPS on any handlebars, except, I might get the Garmin Geko 201 GPS, because it's light enough, that it should not be ripped off the handlebars when experiencing high G-forces, that would tear a heavyer object off of the handlebars.

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With my SporTrak Pro, I used the standard bike mount but "enhanced" it with a couple of really thick rubber bands. Never had a problem.

 

These days though, I'm riding without any GPS. When I get one another GPS it will probably be an Explorist, so I'll pay special attnetion to your warning about the poor mount.

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I have a lanyard attached to the hard case of my PDA and my mobile phone. I have a snap attached to my merigold so I can clip it to the caribiner on my belt loop while I'm logging. I nearly lost my PDA once when it dropped off my belt and I have came way too close to walking off with my GPS lying on a log next to a cache. One must be careful of these things and take percautions. Sad stories all. :o

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Wow, sorry to hear about that, Dot-Com! Had a similar experience years ago, know how you feel. I wonder if there is a more durable after-market mount. If not, there's the next $30 idea:-)

 

I once had my MeriPlat fall out of the windshield mount on some nasty old gravel road. I then started using a couple big runner bands as lee_rimar suggested. Best $0.15 insurance I have ever purchased!

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DOT-COM, someone has a nearly new Explorist 600 for sale on the garage sale forum

pm me the url of this forum. Im constantly checking the internet(ebay) for the best deal

 

FORGET IT I ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION AND FOUND IT

Edited by D0T-C0M
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I am very unimpressed by the Magellan mounts for the eXplorist line. The mounts for the meridian and sportrak line all have a positive clip in interface and you have to press a button to release them. The mount for the eXplorist is just a slide in and to top it off, they use the lanyard hole to hold it in place making it impossible to clip the GPS in if the lanyard is attached. (If you attach the lanyard to the battery down D-ring, then it kinda clips in, but not firmly.) All in all, not a very good design. I doubt that they will improve on the design either, unless masses of people complain.

 

--Marky

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Dot-Com,

 

Spoke to you this morning and sorry to hear about this too.

I suggest that you attach a lanyard to the GPS as a security. Always expect the worse.

 

More often than not, it is very rare that people would return the hi-tech toys back to the owner if found. But it is not impossible. Becuase just last year, I dropped my $400 worth of PDA and I thought the person who might foun it did not wish to return it to me. Man was I so embarrased, it turn out to be someone else found it and kept it for me (becuase I lost it on a friday).

Came Monday, this guy hand me the PDA and I was so blessed. You never know, if someone finds it, they might contact you and you'll earn a new friend by that way. :blink:

 

There's are no such insurance to cover that small amount, its like having a cellphone or PDA, if you loose it, just cross your finger that the person would kindly return it. :ph34r:

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Dot-Com...Very sorry to hear about your GPS. It's a reminder to all of us about equipment security while hiking.

 

I recently lost a microcassette recorder (ok...at $35, definitely not in the same league) while looking for a cache (I use recorders for birding, which I do as I look for caches). A little stumble on a tree root, recorder flips out of pocket (un-noticed) and---several hours of searching later----acceptance that it's gone.

 

I later dope-slapped myself for not using a simple carabiner to secure it to a belt loop. Easy on-off, much less angst.

 

I carry my gps on a lanyard, after having dropped it once, but didn't apply the same security to my little recorder. Lesson learned.

 

On the other hand, a lesson from Maude (in "Harold and Maude") to not get too attached to material things.

 

I will re-state my admonishment to check your insurance, however. You don't HAVE to file a claim in order to at least check with your agent on the options available to you.

 

Good luck.

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I will re-state my admonishment to check your insurance, however. You don't HAVE to file a claim in order to at least check with your agent on the options available to you.

 

Good luck.

I agree. My insurance agent said my policy has a clause for "mysterious disappearance." She said that would even include something like if I set my camera down on a park bench and turned my head for a minute and then found it missing when I looked for it.

 

It is certainly worth asking the question.

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Well I bought bluebird5's Explorist600.

 

Thanks to Team Yankee Kiwi for the heads up. I paid a reasonable price and it still beats the canadian price by $100. I almost bought one from harmonycomputers for 305$, I spoke to the sales rep and they still offer it at that price but bluebird5 included the SD card which was the deal maker for me. So I'm pretty happy that I will be reunited with an explorist600 even if it isnt my original one. I do plan to go back out to the spot where I lost my unit with a half dozen friends to do a detailed search. If it fell in the river its lost but if its on the side of the 500feet of road after the river I should be able to find it. At least I would have tried. Hope to recieve my GPS soon so I can put this all behind me.

Edited by D0T-C0M
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